Marcy Meffert: Women carry whole life in purse

Published 7:26 pm, Wednesday, June 29, 2011

As I opened the various zippered compartments of my purse, trying to find my wallet, a reader said that I ought to do a column about women’s purses. At first I wondered what one could say other than they are heavy, pull on the shoulder and are a part of life for women. Men carry purses, too, but they call them brief cases, gym or messenger bags.

I began to carry a purse in second grade because I needed a safe place to carry a house key and my stack of handkerchiefs or wad of tissues for the cold that was never cured, which I now know was allergies. Lorretta Karpinski stole my purse; my mother told me to get it back and I did. In the eighth grade, I stole her boyfriend in retribution. (But that’s another story — about people with long memories.)

Most Popular

Adult women carry purses because our clothing seldom has enough suitable pockets for our necessities. Men stuff their wallets and don’t seem to mind the back ailment they get from sitting on a one-sided lump. Women get shoulder pain from shoulder bags or elbow aches from hand-carried ones, which we also accept as one of life’s inevitabilities. We could never stuff all our stuff into a wallet or pockets.

My current purse, made from lightweight nylon, weighs four pounds when loaded. Some purses weigh four pounds when empty due to chains, clasps, buttons, hooks, clips and other heavy metal objects that are supposed to be decorative but just add to weight.

Weight isn’t the only issue with purses. Often, fashion requires purses to match shoes, which means you have to change purses when you change shoes; other times matching is passé. If you are like me, you get one you can lift and carry; fashion be damned. Some purses come with different compartments to help organize necessities and catalogs have generic pocketed organizers so you can easily switch all your stuff from yesterday’s purse to today’s. They work only if you put things back to their designated space, which doesn’t happen in my life.

My husband always said it was too scary to dig in my purse when he needed change for the pizza guy; he would bring it to me, holding it as if it contained something live and vicious. Like many women, I carry extra lip gloss, calendar, wallet, comb and brush, medications, band-aids, checkbook, tissues, gum, hard candies (my version of cough drops), hand lotion, membership cards, nail clippers, cell phone, notebook, pens, business cards, book to read when waiting and to-do lists. Mothers carry extras: Wipes, energy bars, snack cereal in plastic containers, plus toys and books to keep kids occupied. It’s a wonder we can walk upright with such a load. I see no practical solution to this problem.